The Vikings’ Top 5 Trade Candidates as Cuts Appear on the Horizon
Very soon, the Vikings’ 91-man roster will need to shrink down to 53. It’s a painful process. The sting gets lessened by welcoming 16 players to the practice squad, but the overall process is still one that’s replete with difficulty.
Something that makes the time of the year a touch easier is trades.
In consecutive cut down periods, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has traded. Back in 2022, Adofo-Mensah shipped out Jesse Davis, a veteran guard who wasn’t going to start since Ed Ingram had showed enough to be elevated to the RG1 spot. In 2023, Vederian Lowe got moved out since the recent draftee wasn’t going to make the final roster. Does the pattern hold? Will Adofo-Mensah trade someone out for draft capital?
Note: PurplePTSD published a previous version of this piece, highlighting five trades candidates leading into camp. One of those players, Andrew Booth Jr., was traded.
The Vikings’ Top 5 Trade Candidates
Trade Candidate #5 — Dalton Risner, Guard
Easy to forget about him, right? He has mostly been an afterthought after much jubilation about his return. Would he get traded?
The 6’5″, 312-pound lineman played 746 snaps for Minnesota’s offense. Along the way, Risner committed a trio of penalties. However, he didn’t allow a single sack, a testament to his pass blocking and an effort that doesn’t stop until the whistle. Genuinely, Risner plays with great energy, finishing off the play on an every-down basis.
He did, however, get dinged with allowing 11 hits and 30 pressures. So, not a perfect report card within Kevin O’Connell’s offense.
The tepid contract commitment alongside some of the broader context suggests that Risner’s spot isn’t an ironclad certainty. Seeing so little of him during the preseason hasn’t helped his chances.
A trade would clear $1,910,000 in cap space.
Trade Candidate #4 — Ed Ingram, Right Guard
The starting offensive line got the night off in the Cleveland game. Except, of course, for Ed Ingram.
Picked in the 2nd Round of the 2022 NFL Draft, Ingram faced some high expectations. The college left guard got kicked over to right guard and struggled in a major way as a rookie. His sophomore season did go better, but no one is mistaking him for Quenton Nelson. At best, he has been average. At worst, he has been very bad.
One wonders if there’s a scenario where the Vikings roll with Risner, Blake Brandel, Michael Jurgens, and Dan Feeney as their interior linemen. Cutting Ingram seems quite unlikely, but a trade is possible. Some teams out there would see potential in the LSU alumnus, especially one that has a shaky left guard spot.
Trading the third-year player would clear $1,250,270.
Trade Candidate #3 — Lewis Cine, Safety
The past couple of seasons have gone very poorly for Lewis Cine. Yes, there’s talent. Yes, there’s a desire to tackle and to be physical. But even with those things being true, the opportunity just hasn’t been there and the leg injury can only explain so much.
In 2023, Cine was on the field for 8 snaps and inactive for 10 games. When inactives outnumber snaps, it’s a bad sign. The Vikings have a couple more seasons left on Cine’s deal but would likely welcome the opportunity to ship him out if there was a trade partner. The safety is 24.
In fairness, the most recent evidence points toward promise. His game against the Browns was excellent, resulting in an INT, a sack, and numerous tackles. He was active all game, appearing decisive and physical, the precise attributes Minnesota was signing up for when sinking No. 32 into him back in 2022. Will that promise be enough to keep him around?
A trade clears nearly $1,749,924 million in cap space.
Trade Candidate #2 — Fabian Moreau, Corner
Adding Stephon Gilmore changes things.
Minnesota is now working with a clear-cut top trio of Byron Murphy Jr., Stephon Gilmore, and Shaq Griffin. Now toss in the fact that Akayleb Evans isn’t going anywhere. Where does that leave things in the corner competition? After all, Dwight McGlothern has been having an impressive offseason, so Minnesota’s leadership seems likely to keep him around and continue developing him on the active roster.
Moreau has pretty good size at 6’0″ and 204 pounds. He’s a touch older — 30 — but is coming off of a season where he started 11 games while playing in 16. For his efforts, Moreau picked up 46 tackles to stand alongside 1 interception, 7 passes defended, and 1 tackle for loss.
Trading the veteran corner would toss $1,233,529 million back into the budget.
Trade Candidate #1 — Patrick Jones II, Edge Rusher
The 25-year-old edge rusher faces an uphill battle. Drafted by the former regime, Patrick Jones II is at best the fourth option but could have a tough time making the roster even if there are five or six guys kept around. Last season, Jones played in all seventeen games while starting four but only had a single sack.
The upside for an acquiring team is that he’s young, cheap, and has NFL size at 6’4″, 264. In 2021, the Vikings scooped him up at 90th overall. Minnesota wasn’t the only team to think that he was worthy of being a mid-round selection. Does one of those teams still have some belief in him? He had 4 sacks and 8 TFLs as a backup in 2022.
Standing in his way are Jihad Ward, Gabriel Murphy, Bo Richter, and Andre Carter. The top trio of Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Dallas Turner aren’t going anywhere, so it’s that other cluster (the depth guys) that presents the greatest challenge to Mr. Jones. Does Adofo-Mensah prefer the players he onboarded instead of the Spielman pick?
Trading Jones would mean clearing $1,324,104.
Honorable Mentions: Jaquelin Roy, Defensive Tackle; Jay Ward, Defensive Back; DeWayne McBride, Running Back; Jonah Williams, Defensive Tackle; Jihad Ward, Edge Rusher; Nahshon Wright, Corner.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
Untangling the Vikings’ Backfield for Fantasy Football
K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.